Match Report 2002-2003
Saturday 19 October, 2002, Division One
Sheffield Wednesday away
City feel the pressure
City are at a level. The team is not going to get any better and probably not much worse. We are not going to go up, we are not going to go down. The area between 8th and 18th is our home for the season and it looks like we are staying there.
Today City got into a scrap and lost. That does not happen often but the Owls did a good job on the Bantams, no, Terry Yorath did a good job on City.
Yorath had targeted City's strengths and weaknesses. Michael Proctor was a strength, former QPR man Danny Maddix went through the back of him within 30 seconds of the kick off and the Sunderland striker never looked the same. City have other strengths and they were well marshalled too.
City's weaknesses are multitude too though. Robert Molenaar is slow so Gerald Sibon hung off him as often as he could. Mark Bower is not the biggest guy but Sheffi Kuqi is and they clashed and more often than not the big Fin came out on top.
So with Yorath having sussed City out and with home advantage the game was thier's to lose. They didn't. Sibon got the scoring started with a fine finish after twenty five minutes but it could have been more.
The Owls let City back in the game when Danny Maddix once again went in heavy on Proctor. He got the booking he should have had in the first minute. Some thought he should have been sent off in the first minutes, Maddix seemed to have something else to do at four o'clock and started a bust up with Ashley Ward to get him a red card.
Stephen Warnock equalised for City. I wonder about Warnock. He is well thought of at Melwood and Anfield and some have even said that he is the next Steven Gerrard but given a choice between Warnock and Tom Kearney I would choose Kearney every single time. The Liverpool loanee does not have the mark of quality that singled players who are going on to bigger and better.
Warnock's goal came as City enjoyed their only spell on top of the game. For ten minutes before half time City had Wednesday on the backfoot, for the rest of the game it was the home side in charge, including the second half where they played with ten men.
Nicky Law's problem with City is that he cannot get a balance that is creative enough. The chances that City get are low percentage, we need to get to the stage where the openings we craft are harder to miss than to score. It is impressive when a Paul Evans bulges the net from 30 yards but if that is the only weapon in the arsenal then one gets worried.
Andy Gray was a case in point. Twice in a minute he came within inches of giving City a lead. One shot hit the bar, one was cleared off the line, but neither were six yard tap-ins that a team with one more man should be creating.
The frustrations of this lack of creativity boiled over for Paul Evans and Wayne Jacobs who engaged in some team mate scuffling, Jacobs ruining a very impressive display.
Everything went pear shaped in the last five when Robert Molenaar spoiled the day with a shove in the box. Sibon tucked in the resulting penalty and City were left to rue not so many chances missed but chances not created.
But credit for Yorath, who played a blinder today. The Owls will probably still sack him before the turn of the year but today he had the measure of us and there was nothing that the man on top of the shortlist to replace Taff could do.
Man of the Match
None
Would have been Wayne Jacobs but for the bust up with Paul Evans.